hello, thanks for joining us on nhk world. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. a german newspaper says president barack obama has known for years that american agents were eavesdropping on chancellor angela merkel for the last three years.

this contradicts reports that obama had told merkel he didn't know. citing a u.s. intelligence worker involved in the spying operation, he said nsa chief keith alexander informed obama in person about the surveillance in 2010. the paper quoted the source as saying that obama did not stop the operation back then, but let it continue. the article said they increased the surveillance to include the contents of merkel's text messages. the agency then started tapping a new, supposedly bug-proof cell phone she acquired this past summer. media reports say obama apologized to merkel when she called him on wednesday. the president told merkel he would have stopped the bugging had he known about it. specs spokespersons for the nsa have denied the allegations. the agency said in a statement in beijing on sunday that nsa chief alexander never had talks with president obama about its

spying activities on people, including merkel in 2010. a german weekly magazine has disclosed the details of allegations that u.s. intelligence services secretly collected information worldwide. the report says u.s. agents installed spying equipment at u.s. embassies and consulates. the latest issue of "der speigel" says the u.s. national security agency and the central intelligence agency used a joint program called the special collections service. the magazine report says agents installed about 80 high-performance antennas to capture records of mobile phone, online, and satellite communications. the article mentions 80 locations. 19 of them are in europe. the targets were allegedly classified into a five-scale list that was reviewed every 18 months by the staff of the white house and the secret services. international experts overseeing chemical weapons in syria may have missed a

deadline. the inspectors arrived at the beginning of the month. they had been checking 23 facilities used to store chemical agents. they've been negotiating to get into those facilities. officials with the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons haven't said how the inspectors did it on sunday or whether they met their goal. the syrian government has met one of their deadlines. and they plan to destroy the arsenal. experts will spend the next few weeks drawing up their own plans. they hope to dispose of all of the chemical weapons by the middle of next year. well, more than two million syrians have fled to neighboring turkey and lebanon to escape the civil war many are traveling on to bulgaria, the eastern gateway of the european union. the bulgarian government is putting up a fence along its border with turkey to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

nearly 8,000 syrian refugees have entered bulgaria since beginning of this year. the number far exceeds the capacity of existing facilities. the bulgarian government is setting up temporary camps. the additional cost of accommodating the refugees is expected to reach 6 million euros. bulgaria is planning to ask the e.u. for assistance. bulgaria's defense ministry began constructing the 107-kilometer fence along the turkish border last week. it expects to complete the project by february 2014. illegal immigrants who are not from syria are also entering the country through turkey. the bulgarian government has also announced a plan to tighten immigration controls to help reduce the influx. a chinese newspaper has apologized for alleged misreporting by one of its journalists. police detained the reporter

after he made allegations about corruption at a state-owned manufacturing company. the guangdong based "new express" had been demanding the release of 27-year-old chen yongzhou. the paper carried unprecedented front page articles on two consecutive days last week. but the "new express" ran a front page editorial on sunday in which it apologized to its readers. the article says the paper had failed to fully confirm the facts in the report. it says the way the "new express" demanded chen's release was improper and has damaged trust in the media. state-run xinhua news agency and other chinese media reported on saturday that chen had confessed to the police. the journalist reportedly said most of his articles relied on untrue information provided by an acquaintance and that he had received money. there's been a new wave of car bombings in iraq. more than 40 people have been killed in shia neighborhoods in

baghdad and elsewhere on sunday. [ sirens ] local security officials say car bombs exploded one after another at nine locations, including crowded markets and police checkpoints. at least 27 people died and 78 others were wounded. all the blasts occurred in the shia districts within a period of 30 minutes. at around the same time in the northern city of mosul, a car approaching security troops suddenly exploded, killing 14 people and wounding 55 others. police believe the blasts were coordinated attacks. targeting shia residents and security agencies. they are investigating a sunni muslim group linked to al qaeda. united nations officials say more than 5,700 iraqi civilians have lost their lives to terrorism attacks in the first nine months of this year. bombs exploded at an opposition party rally in india on sunday. five people were killed. the indian home affairs ministry says six homemade bombs went off in about three hours in patna,

the capital in the eastern state of bihar. tens and thousands of people had gathered there for a rally of the largest opposition group. the party's candidate for prime minister, narendra modi, was unharmed. india will hold an election for the lower house after his term ends next may. he's the chief minister of the western state of gujarat and is popular among indian voters. he's also known as a hard-line hindu nationalist. torrential rains has caused majored intoi major flooding in eastern and southern india. in the eastern state, heavy rain flooded rivers. local media reported that 15 people have been killed. a river overflowed its banks leaving 32 people dead.

about 15,000 homes in the state were damaged and more than 72,000 people fled their homes. rain is expected to continue through monday. the indian government has deployed personnel for rescue work. troops have been airlifting relief supplies to isolated villages. eastern and southern coastal regions were struck by a powerful cyclone two weeks ago. 38 people died. the way people get an education is changing radically. the internet has made the traditional classroom or lecture hall unnecessary. one nonprofit group is offering children in the developing world and elsewhere a chance to receive a first-rate education free. the concept is catching on with top-notch schools. >> the american nonprofit

organization ignited the growth of free online classes. the founder has recorded all kinds of educational videos. they include math, physics, and art and history. the videos are free. >> just because people like, i think, the conversational tone. >> this video help s students learn basic addition. >> so we go one, two, three, four. we ended up at 7. that was our answer. >> it has been played more than two million times. altogether, there are around 5,000 videos. most are for elementary and junior high school students. khan used to be an analyst for a hedge fund. then, young relatives in distant

places asked him to teach them arithmetic. so he made a video and posted it on the web. that was how he started his career in online education. people found his video easy to understand. quickly, he became a hit. microsoft founder bill gates gives him financial support. his videos have been translated into many languages. 85 million people around the world have viewed them. >> we want to create a reality where the zions of the world, a kid in a reverend few few gee or camp in india, they have the exact same tools as bill gates' children. this girl lives in a town in bangladesh. she has never had much time to study because she spent most of the time helping her mother. thelma goes to a school run by

an educational nonprofit group. classes last three hours a day. teachers wanted to make good use of its limited teaching time so they began using khan's videos in classes. some students, including thelma, began studying on their own during breaks. she kept watching a math video over and over that helped her increase her score. she wants to study more and become a doctor. >> translator: i am very happy. it is not easy to learn arithmetic. >> one of america's prestigious universities, m.i.t., is a front-runner in offering free online courses. about a million students around the world have enrolled. >> welcome to everybody who is watching on the web as well. >> utan of magnolia was one of

those students. he wanted to study at an american university but it was too expensive. so he took a circuit in an electronics course online. he earned the perfect score on each of the weekly tests. the professor recommended that m.i.t. accept him as an on-campus student. the university said yes and waived his tuition. >> when i got this, i was also proud of myself because getting into m.i.t. is not an easy. >> free online courses are for families changing education. now it's become more possible to close the education gap between the students in rich and poorer countries. nhk world. four chinese military aircraft have flown over islands

in southern japan. they say they didn't violate japan's air space. japanese defense says they were two early warning planes and two bombers. they flew over the area between okinawa's main island and miyako island on sunday. the chinese aircraft flew over the pacific ocean several hundred kilometers south of okinawa and then returned to the east china sea. they have been i can maimaking round-trip flights for three days in a row. destroyers were confirmed to pass between the main island and miyako. officials are investigating whether the chinese naval operations are being coordinated with the military flights. prime minister shinzo abe says the security situation around japan is becoming increasingly severe. he says he wants to build a legal structure that will suit the difficult security environment.

[ trumpets sounding ] abe spoke to about 4,000 self-defense force personnel at an annual review at a garrison in osaka, north of tokyo. >> translator: you may think it's enough for you to just participate in training. or you may think defense capability itself works as a deterrent, but as s.d.f. members, you have to completely get rid of those old-fashioned ideas. >> he said japan needs to constantly pursue the best possible security policies, and he said the control tower will be the national security council that he plans to set up. abe added that he would like to see a public debate on whether japan can exercise its right to collective self-defense and participate in collective u.n. security operations. japanese and chinese experts are trying to mend bilateral ties. they've called on their governments to set up a crisis

management mechanism to prevent accidental clashes over a territorial dispute. they made the appeal at an annual private sector forum on sunday. the event was organized by a japanese think tank and a chinese newspaper. in the two-day meeting, the participants discussed how to improve relations and the sovereignty issue over the senkaku islands in the east china sea. former japanese prime minister yasuo fukuda called for stronger cooperation in bilateral and multilateral frameworks between japan and china. very good opportunity. experts from the two countries, to exchange views frankly and acknowledge their differences as a step toward finding ways to cooperate with each other. >> some chinese participants criticize the japanese government's purchase over the disputed islands, but they also said the two nations' leaders should try to improve strained ties by further promoting

economic exchanges. japan controls the senkaku islands, but china and taiwan claim them. the japanese government main tapes the islands are an inherent part of its territory, both historically and under international law. south korean foreign ministry officials regret that images from an nhk drama were used without permission in a website video that claimed sovereignty over disputed islands. japan claims an island in the sea of japan but south korea controls them. nearly 20 seconds of video was used from a battle scene from the battle clouds above the hill featuring the 1904 japanese war. after receiving an inquiry from nhk, south korean officials say they have no reason to believe that they were used. they deleted the video from their website on sunday. they told a private production firm to make the video and it apparently downloaded the images from the internet.

the clip was made without the awareness that it belonged to nhk. people in turkey are celebrating a milestone in their nation's history. tuesday marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the republic. japan's ties with the country go back even further. they began more than 120 years ago with a tragedy. >> reporter: a buckle with an emblem of the turk kirk navy, part of a rifle, just south of the salvaged items ta he will it the story of a disaster. in 1819, the empire sent its first delegation to japan.

they traveled on a navy frigate. but the ship never made it back. she sailed off kushimoto and sank. locals headed out to the sea and rescued 69 people but more than 500 others were killed. many were young sailors in training. the town directed the memorial and held a ceremony every five years. the incident is written about in turkish school textbooks. in 2008, turkish president visited to pay his respects. turkish underwater archaeologists have been salvages items from the wreckage for the last ten years. >> my main and only goal is to

bring back the memories of those soldiers who gave their lives for our countries, turkey and japan. >> reporter: he and his team dive to explore the wreckage. one of their largest finds was a cooking pan nearly one meter wide. team members carefully clean each item. on this day, a group of high school students came to help. >> translator: i hope i can continue to the friendship between japan and turkey. >> jonathan and his family have come to known koshimoto as their second home. he hopes this tragedy will help their bond grow even stronger. >> so we're going to continue, continue as long as we can to tell the story to japanese

people, to the turkish people, to the whole world. >> reporter: he says he will keep entering the seabed as long as there is something to salvage. the world's top wheelchair athletes have taken part in an international marathon in oita, southern japan. about 250 people from 16 countries ran in sunday's marathon. they were aged between 14 and 87. 91 of them went for the full marathon. the weather was slightly cooler than usual when the race started at 11:00 a.m. the top athletes sped along at about 30 kilometers an hour. from switzerland, he won his fourth consecutive title at the london paralympics. >> i never expected a win. i really hoped to win, of

course, but, yeah, i'm really happy. >> hug's winning time was 1: 2: 49. they had a choice of four courses ranging from a 5 kilometer race to a full marathon. the runners were supported by musicians playing drums and traditional instruments. >> translator: the marathon was well organized. i i this it's the only country that can hold this kind of competition. >> translator: i was very happy to finish. i seem to be healthier, too. >> a lot of smiles there. all right. time now for a check on the weather with mai shoji.

>> we have a storm coming across the british isles. let me show you a video first to show you the conditions here. one of the worst storms in decades on monday. winds of 130 drenching rains ar possible. people were physically preparing for the arrival of this storm. the strong wind alerts are also posted for much of northern europe. you can see the isobars very close together. the wind will be 130 kilometers per hour. we have a red alert posted for the netherlands area. could also be on the ground level. it's going to be a very strong wind maker as this storm nears

this area and it looks like it will be making very -- sending a significant stage for traveling disturbances, especially in the morning commuting hours across the uk and northern areas across the continent as well as falling trees and also damage to buildings and other structures. so do be bracing for this storm system. across the southern areas it looks very calm and we have a system moving in to western russia. overcast and rain is forecasted across moscow as well. the temperatures will be remaining in the down digits. not too bad at 12 degrees. across the italian areas as well as the alps. likely to see scattered thunderstorms but parts in the south remaining in the 20s. in rome, 26 degrees with partly sunny skies. not bad at all. athens looking at 27 degrees with plenty of sunshine. now let's head over to the eastern continental asia where we have a high pressure

predominant across much of japan and down towards the south another tropical development. this is a tropical depression as for now but it looks like it will become a tropical storm system into the next 24 hours and it's likely to head over towards the philippines. right now bringing very stormy conditions to the islands so people here in the philippines should be bracing for this incoming storm. here in the southwestern china, this is a shot of very heavy downpours and it's likely to continue into the next 24 hours. southern thailand has been finding 100 millimeters of rainfall in the past 24 hours. towards the north of that, precipitation in the higher elevations are likely to turn white. another disturbance will be bringing showers to be floating over the northeastern china and north korea order and towards japan, southern areas in

northern nations are likely to see showers scatter across the area on tuesday. but for now, the high pressure is bringing clear skies and less winds. radiation cooling is likely in the morning hours. tokyo at 20 degrees with overcast but partly sunny skies and down towards the south, staying in the 30s in that tropics. here's your extended forecast.

all right. we'd like to remind you of our top story at this hour. u.s. president barack obama is finding himself in an awkward

position with his allies. a german newspaper says that he's known for years that agents were spying on german chancellor angela merkel. that contradicts reports that he told her he did not know about it. a u.s. intelligence worker was involved in this spying operation on merkel. the article said in 2010 the head of the national security agency informed obama in person about the surveillance. the paper is saying that obama did not stop the operation back then but let it continue. agents increased their surveillance to increase the contents of merkel's text messages and phone calls. then they started tapping a phone call that she acquired this summer. the phone was supposedly bug-proof. media reports say that president obama apologized to merkel when he called her on wednesday. he said he would have stopped the bugging had he known about it. spokespersons for the nsa hadend

the allegations that keith alexander never discussed operations involving merkel with the president. and that is all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks for joining us. 

- coming up, the intersection of religion and the law. - is there any reason to think these kinds of moral arguments would single out religious conscience as more important than other kinds of liberty of conscience? - university of chicago law school's brian leiter challenges the vaulted status of religion in the laws of the u.s. and other western democracies. it's just ahead on "global ethics forum." - our speaker is brian leiter. professor leiter is the karl llewellyn professor of jurisprudence and director of the center for law, philosophy, and human values at the university of chicago. professor leiter will be discussing his new book, which is provocatively titled "why tolerate religion?" - let's start with an example to make the issue concrete.